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Tour de France Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 16:53
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-02-2018 01:00
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Grand Tour Champion
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OlegTinkov wrote:
He knockout, did I just kicked your ass in the team ranking or what 
I just looked at that ranking for the first time this race but i expected no other position. With only 3 riders left including the "top" sprinter and his leadout that cannot be enough for anything other than the last place. Good to see I won that battle at least 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:00
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Hurray! We finally did it...
Winning the Tour de France has been my main goal ever since we managed to sign Simon Spilak, so it is great to finally achieve that goal, despite it being due to the main favorite crashing.
I am happy that Taaramäe ended up scoring big despite him crashing and losing a lot of points.
Too bad for Slagter to lose a spot he so very overperformed to get by doing a stellar TT yesterday, but luckily that is a minor thing.
Spilak taking the points competition was a Big surprise when I Saw how well Phinney sprinted. Thanks Alaphilippe for that effort. And also that 8th by Alaphilippe makes him the 3rd only rider in our team to score a single point here at this race (except for GC), with Novak being the other.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:00
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Finishing this TdF with Reimer sprinting to 3rd is really nice actually
All in all a good race for us even if we hoped Wellens could have gotten a better GC place after his good start to the race but fading a bit later.
Lövkvist doing what he supposed to do with a 23rd in GC much better then in Giro where he crashed out on stage 20...
Cort Nielsen as said before a bit worse then expected.
Once gain congrats SotD!
And thanks very much for reporting this Aquarius97! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:05
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World Champion
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Love to see Van Staeyen winning, beaut lead out from Dzasmastagic <3 Thoroughly enjoyed all the reports Aquarius, awesome job! Congrats to SotD - with Praha next it could be a big month for Festina in the rankings fight!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:05
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Not amused with that final sprint at all.
Oh well, we won a stage at least.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:08
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Team Manager
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First of all thanks a lot for reporting this Aquarius. Was a nice read and you made it thrilling in a race full of crashes and couple of lead changes.
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My team as said earlier with a so-so experience.
10th for Dekker was absolutely the minimum. With the loss due to crashes I guess, I can be very happy as others were hit harder e.g. Moser with Sagan and beagle with Tenorio. Could have been injured a lot more after several crashes. Still hurts as he probably had been 5th or 6th and hence would have marked our best GT result by far in the team`s history.
Still he fought back with a stage win which is incredible to see by a MG legend just like Swift already is and with 2 stages for him it`s yet another step to the best sprinter the Tour has ever seen.
Other than that 57th is nice for Koep.
Adds nicely to 47th in the Giro and 61st in the Vuelta. Nice triple top50 I was hoping but still close and consistent.
Just as consistent as the team`s GT performances. Nothing outstanding this season, no jersey and it was more marked by 6 stage wins by my sprinters. But being 14th in the Giro, 11th & 15th in the Vuelta and then 10th in the Tour is a nice consistency at least.
With 3 finishers here only this must have been one of my weaker GT endings. Villella as latest not as active as I was hoping but surely had to work a lot and tried at least sometimes.
The sprinters did okay here. Sbaragli and Swift had a great first week, then it ended quickly and all 3 were DNF riders unfortunately before Paris.
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Congrats SotD for this stunning win. Just 46s in the end to Phinney, who probably would have been an as deserved winner.
Though Spilak was strongest in the last week and probably wasn`t getting as much time as he could have gained in the hills. So fine to see this order.
Though pity for Heine as Taaramae normally would have won here. Still a strong race by him and surely a rider to win a GT later.
Gesink as 3rd with a fantastic race for eBuddy even though very invisible a lot of times while Amador had a strong performance as wildcard team.
Yates then though with a huge overperformance. Surely lucky that 4-5 riders behind him crashed and also offered him a better GC but then again, he was very active and he did well. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:11
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Congrats, knockout. You asked for it, you got it
And then, big congrats to SotD. A truly deserved GT victory for a classy manager. Looking forward to the PT rankings (well, at least in terms of Festina/Moser).
Speaking of PT rankings, Jayco will drop further and this race really hadn't too many good news for us, unfortunately. Haig as 16th in the GC may be solid, but he had a few crashes and some underwhelming stage performances as well. Lowe also crashing out of any minor Top-30/50 hopes, so really a low scoring race for us. No breakaway success at all, despite being in several early breaks.. Haig as the biggest disappointment here - getting dropped rather early in his two (?) long range breakaway attempts.. at least, there's a second place in the U25 ranking, but that ain't big points, obviously... Praha definitely has to be better. It's about time for my guys to get me some good mood after some terrible weeks most recently. Durbridge however... well...
A huge thank you to Aquarius for some quality reports - it has to be said after every GT: taking over the workload of a Grand Tour is something special and despite me whining for most of the 21 race days here, I really appreciate your efforts!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:26
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Thank you for the outstanding reports throughout the Tour, Aquarius.
In the end it was a good race for us which should bring us plenty of points in what seems to have become a season where we fight to stay in the PT. A podium in the Tour de France is not something that you have the opportunity to get very often and I'm glad I've had the chance to get it with Gesink in what might be his last season with the team. The team rankings is a very nice classification to win especially since it's the first time we did in the Tour after previously doing it once in Il Giro and twice in La Vuelta.
Now to the downsides. Really disappointing not to get a stage win here and score a second season in my team's history with stage wins in all three Grand Tours. Majka seemed to have picked up an injury somewhere as his performance was really poor in the end after a very good start of the race. But the most disappointing thing about this Tour de France is Brambilla missing out the top 20 for about 1 minute after all the struggle he had with his crash.
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:30
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Grand Tour Champion
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Finishing with a victory is at least a consolidation prize but i cannot be happy with Van Stayens tour. He was simply beaten too often by lesser sprinters which shouldnt happen as often. For next season i plan to rotate GVA into his standard leadout train (if i keep them both which as of now is still undecided) which could give me a competitive advantage in the sprints as he surely is an upgrade over Dakteris as Dakteris and VS didnt seem to have a good connection with one of them screwing it up most of the time. Having only Dzamastagic as leadout rider on the last stage was so much better - love this rider
(Thanks jandal, tsmoha )
6th in the points classification is a desaster (the lost intermediate sprint on todays stage giving Demare the final edge) and far below expectations. Also no day in yellow was a bummer and it wasnt even close.
Koch with a solid GC effort. 21st is okay. While he might not have achieved the win goal he completely achieved what was expected (top 25-30 / going for KoM was the target). Having fought for the KoM is also excellent even if he only got 4th - i happily take that.
We somehow managed to have enough riders in Paris to be counted for the team competition 
Congrats SotD for a strong race. For all the moaning about Mosers overperformance Spilak came back with the best answer with this slightly unexpected tdf victory.
Would have loved to see Taaramae win this but he was robbed the victory by the gods of crashes. Hopefully, he will have better luck in the future sk that he can one day at this race to his palamares after so many close tries. Maybe a transfer closer towards his home could help with that? 
Also congrats to those who had a great race - Yates, Grmay, Lutsenko heing the first names that come to my mind!
Finally, thanks a lot for the coverage, some very fine reports throughout the race. Great job!
Now waiting for the next ranking update as i have no idea where we actually are right now and who our direct rivals are
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:45
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World Champion
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Rarely can you ever explain the result of a complex event like a cycling race in a simple phrase, but this time it works:
If Felline hadn't OTL'd, Demare would've won here. 
Such a shame to see the great leadout go to waste. At least the green jersey fight went his way.
A Tour with lots of up and downs for us. Demare saved our quest for the Top 10 with his consistent riding and obviously the two stage wins, but it's tough to make up for what we lost with crashes.
Points-wise at least, because from an emotional point of view, he made me very happy and he certainly has started to live up to the hype now.
17th for Arndt isn't horrible either, but there was soo much more in it.
Huge congratulations to SotD for the overall win, and thanks for taking points away from teams below us.
I guess it's tough for RBC to be sad about the final result, with great performances by Phinney. Gesink and Taaramae are probably happy with their outcomes too, especially the Estonian will seek revenge in the next edition.
Despite this sprint, thanks to Evonik for fun sprint duels.
Congrats also to Ayubowan and Haute Route for quite some overperformances.
And last but not least, thank you very much Aquarius for an impeccable coverage of the race. You did brilliantly well, and I'm looking forward to the next race you'll report.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 18-02-2018 20:00
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Well, congrats everyone. A troubled race from the start, but very entertaining most of the time. A race to forget for us, so thank you sincerely, Aqauarius, for making this as quick as you made it
Congratulations SotD, massive achievement for your team!
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 20:26
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Team Leader
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Congratz to Simon Spilak and the Festina - Dexia team
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| Shonak |
Posted on 18-02-2018 20:35
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Tour de France Champion
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Thanks for some really great reports and awesome pace throughout the three weeks through France, Aquarius. Huge congratulations to SotD as well as the other two managers on the podium. Too bad about Rein Taaramae but no doubt he'll be the big favourite next year.
Congratulations also to all stage winners. Strava ends the Grand Tour season with a disappointing balance that could have been much elevated by a single stage win but we did not get lucky ever. At least we had a nice showing here in France with some breaks and good performances by Boekmans.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| ember |
Posted on 18-02-2018 20:46
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Thank you for the excellent coverage of the Tour, Aquarius97! I've enjoyed it from start to finish, much due to you very nice and also consistent reports. Huge work, so thank you again!
Olala, with 600 meters left and the picture there, I actually thought Trentin was going to win Would have been unreal, and in the end, Van Stayen made a perfect sprint, staying calm and thrusting his leadout. Congratulations, knockout!
And there it is for SotD as well. Huge congratulations on the overall win. Spilak was mister steady himself for most of the race, and climbing slightly better towards the very end, getting that necessary gap back to Phinney before the TT. Big win and big points, that's for sure
For us, 6th for Guldhammer is as good as it could get in such company. Very happy with that. Also nice to see Nesset make it inside the top 20, and also strong, but anonymous performances from Hoelgaard, Bugge, Dyrnes and especially Teuns. A pity we only joined one and a half proper breakaway attempt throughout the whole race, as I tried to build the team for just that, but clearly I missed quite badly |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 20:54
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World Champion
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ember wrote:
Van Stayen made a perfect sprint, staying calm and thrusting his leadout.
NSFW
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| Roman |
Posted on 18-02-2018 22:04
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Huge thanks to Aquarius, enjoyable reading all the way through the race!
Also once again big congrats to Festina, what a great moment for them. And it looks like Taaramae's race was not that bad after all. Phinney with a GT podium, seems like a classic thing to happen every season, congratulations.
After all, I have to be quite happy with our race. A day in yellow, stage win, top 15 place in GC, few more top 50 GC results and 3rd in team competition. Only if Sagan would survive without an injury... Can't wait for the rankings update.
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-02-2018 22:41
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Grand Tour Champion
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NSFW
Thanks ember
@cio: thanks to Puma as well, doubt we would have this many sprint finishes without the work of your team. I think you were the more lucky one this time but I'm sure we will see some more battles throughout the years
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 22:45
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knockout wrote:
NSFW
Thanks ember
@cio: thanks to Puma as well, doubt we would have this many sprint finishes without the work of your team. I think you were the more lucky one this time but I'm sure we will see some more battles throughout the years
Dzamastagod <3
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| Heine |
Posted on 19-02-2018 06:28
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Big congratulations again to sotd and Spilak. Rein will be back for revenge!
@knockout I talked with him, he said that the support he could get from such a team was not good enough for him, and he didn't want to play second fiddle to Koch
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| knockout |
Posted on 19-02-2018 07:15
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Grand Tour Champion
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But he could be my Landa (Rein) for my Froome (Koch) 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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